As they walked towards Cushion's cubby hole Leibnitz couldn't stop herself asking 'Who is Beaumont?'
'Someone who reminds me of you' the wistful response'.
'Are you going to stay?' the younger woman continued. A hopeful tone to her voice.
'Maybe. I don't know'
'I hope you do'
'Let's get on with the job. You check to see whether anything has come in from Interpol. If not give them a chase. Meanwhile, I will get hold of my friend. Then we will go and see the solicitor lady'.
A little later as they walked past Tombland Flint commented on the attractiveness of the houses on either side of the road and the fact that the area seemed almost continental with all the outside seating for the cafes and restaurants. Leibnitz gave her a potted history of the buildings commencing with the medieval specimens.
She did not have time to offer too much of a description as they reached the offices of Clutterbuck and Lozenge. Whereas Tombland expressed historical charm Upper King Street oozed Nineteen Fifties drabness. They walked through the sliding entrance doors and down a corridor that opened onto a cavernous and dimly lit reception area.
The young girl behind the desk enquired as to whom they were coming to see and whether they had an appointment to see that person.
They stated that it was Jane Sharpe they wanted to see and that they had no appointment. They registered the officious look that began to creep across the girl's face before Flint added authoritatively,
'Let her know that DC Flint and DC Leibnitz want to see her.'
'Of course' a slightly flustered response followed.`
After a couple of minutes they could hear the brisk clack of leather shoes on stone approaching from a corridor behind and to the left of the reception desk. The Clutterbuck and Lozenge offices with their thin frontage and cavernous space beyond resembled a Tardis.
Jane Sharpe emerged from the corridor and looked down her nose at the two policewomen. She considered that their dress sense denoted a pair of oiks.
On their part Flint and Leibnitz were confronted by a well-dressed woman roughly five foot seven in height and about Flint's age
Her obviously long hair was pulled back tightly from her face and fastened as a bun behind her head. Her make-up had been applied so that her skin appeared flawless. She wore a dark grey trouser suit, burgundy blouse with a grey and burgundy polka-dotted scarf at her neck.
She carried herself in an assured manner that befitted a woman who had made her way in a man's world. Her tone was husky and her manner of speaking precise and abrupt. Probably it was a way of speaking dictated by the billing clock. Walked like a soldier, a mannish walk, stiff backed.
Her reaction to being told that they wanted to speak about Pitt Street was simultaneously aggressive and defensive. However, she obviously did not want to discuss the matter and led them back down the corridor, along which she had come, to her office. Leibnitz thought of soldiers as she followed the solicitor. Like a soldier on parade her walk was mannish precise and stiff backed.
Once in the Solicitor's office and sat in two not very comfortable chairs in front of the desk, Flint started her questioning.
'Mrs Sharpe....'
'Ms Sharpe' came the interruption.
'Ms Sharpe we just want to ask you a few questions about Pitt Street. We know you visit the establishment, we have photographs showing you entering the premises
'I am not a criminal lawyer but is the taking of photographs without my knowledge strictly legal?'
'We weren't taking photographs of you specifically. You and others were collateral but useful damage'
'Detective Flint I am a busy woman and I am expecting a client so if you could please get to the point you would save us all a great deal of time.' A clipped and curt response
'Ms Sharpe, I need to know whether you have seen this woman on any of your visits to Pitt Street?' Flint took the photograph of the floater from Leibnitz and held it out for the solicitor.
The other did not move and an awkward silence ensued.
'Sod these power games' thought Flint and placed the photograph on the desk in front of the other woman. Although she did feel like slapping it down.
'Never seem her before. So if that is all I have work to do' she started to rise from her chair.
'Not so fast' Flint came back 'You've hardly looked at the photograph. I am sure that you are aware that it is not a crime to sell sex but it is to buy it.'
'You would have to prove that. I think you would find that hard to do. I only went there the once on an invitation. So as I said...' again the curt and clipped response.
'Oh we will' interrupted the policewoman who was beginning to get irritated, 'and we will prosecute. However, before we go you did hear about the Aktion fur Arbeit business?'
'Of course.'
'Well we are sure that the Pitt Street people were tied up with them in some way. Mel can you wait outside the office for me?'
Once the door clicked shut Flint put both hands on the desk and leaning towards Sharpe and hissed,
'Now listen bitch I'm busy and I'm hacked off. I've got a dead girl who we know operated out of that house. For all I know you paid to fuck her. It is highly probable that the two male pricks you've seen at Pitt Street killed that girl. To be able to progress against them I need someone to state that they saw her. I couldn't give a damn about who you screw, what sex you screw or whether or not you paid for it.'
Only momentarily taken aback the solicitor's face blanched and her thin lips tightened with rage;
'Who the he.....'
'Shut the fuck up! If you don't give me a statement I am going to arrest you for procuring sexual services. Then I'm going to a deal with someone from Pitt Street who'll testify against you to save their own skin. I'll make sure that we'll issue a press release about you. I'm sure that your partners and your clients will be delighted at the publicity. Now solicitor lady what is it to be?'
The solicitor slumped into her chair, Flint walked to the door and called in Leibnitz
'Mel, Ms Sharpe would like to make a brief statement. Can you take it? I need to go to the loo.
Walking back to the station Leibnitz asked her colleague how she had managed to get the solicitor to make a statement. 'Experience' came the simple response. Leibnitz gave her colleague a questioning look.
Back at the station each of the women had a message.
Leibnitz's concerned Interpol. They had nothing on either Morski or Pidrik.
Brevity also characterised Flint's message from Beaumont, 'Ring Me'
Her contact in MI5 informed her that Morski and Pidrik were ex KGB. They had operated in the Soviet Union, Switzerland and latterly East Germany. They had been involved in 'wet actions' across Europe, particularly against Soviet dissidents living in Western Europe and the US. Other assignments had included 'babysitting' Soviet shot-putters and bodybuilders at various international events. It was rumoured that the Soviet boys and girls had bulked up using a substance known as Gamma-Hydroxybutyric acid or GHB. Great for the purpose, as all traces of it disappear within a few hours. Even more interestingly he relayed the fact that Morski and Pidrik had apparently used the drug in their 'wet' actions. He stressed that no pun was intended as he explained that rumour had it that the pair used GHB to drown their victims as it left no trace, apart from in the hair. It was assumed that many of the victims had committed suicide. Most pathologists did not carry out tests on hair in such circumstances. Thus GHB was the ideal death drug!
He advised Flint to be careful as the two were mixed up with some powerful and extremely dangerous figures. He explained that when the Soviet Empire was in the throes of collapsing in on itself senior KGB figures met with Russian crime lords in East Berlin. Rumour had it that the discussions centred on how the state's assets, senior jobs etc. were to be carved up. He asked if she remembered the previous year's attempted coup in the Soviet Union. The KGB and the crime lords had made sure that it collapsed and in doing so had consolidated their grip on Russia.
Morski and Pidrik's worked for Viktor Banderovski. He had been a KGB colonel and together with a friend Vladimir Potin had attended the aforementioned summit meeting. Intel suggested that the pair were cunning in the extreme, aggressively resourceful and masters of creating and then benefiting from chaos.
Banderovski had also been involved with the Schonman's of Aktion. He currently resided in Bishop's Avenue, London and again rumour had him laundering money from Russian state assets through car dealerships, property and nightclubs. Some in MI5 had even suggested that he had taken over a large chunk of Aktion's people trafficking, prostitution and body parts business. Beaumont thought that Flit and Blunt could be interested to know that Banderovski's solicitors are Gribben and Gribben. A little bird told him that they had both crossed swords with them in the past.
The rumours were that Potin was to be groomed for the political arena. Beaumont's parting words on hearing that she was with Blunt again were,
'I'm surprised Blunt hasn't been in touch with his Israeli friends. The one's responsible for our problems before. After all a good few of the Russian crime lords are Jewish' she detected a bitterness in his parting words.
After finishing her call with Beaumont Flint told Leibnitz that they now had a good deal to relay to Blunt and the others about Morski and Pidrik's. She had watched the former's televised interview and seen the photographs of him striking the dead girl. She took an instant dislike to Morski. That photograph and his whole demeanour made her think of her husband. She also made a mental note to ask Blunt about the Israelis.